Introduction
In the twenty-first century the world is becoming more urban and more modernized, and the adoption of English is a symptom of this, for increasingly English serves as the lingua franca of business and popular culture. It is dominant or at least very prominent in other areas such as diplomacy, shipping, computing, medicine and education. Ding and Saunders (2006) defines lingua franca – a term which refers to any language which serves as a common medium for communication between speakers of different tongues--has its origins in the domination of the Levant by Latin-rite Europeans (Franks) during the Middle Ages. While English is incontestably the global lingua franca of the current era of globalization, it is not without competitors (Ding & Saunders, 2006). In Asia, especially in East and Southeast Asia, with the development of tourism and international trading more frequently, Chinese has becoming one of the most important communication language in the region. A report in YAZHOU ZHOUKAN (2003), said that:
Due to the rise of China’s comprehensive power and huge target market and international influences, there was a great mass fervor of learning Chinese, and more than 85 countries added Chinese lessons, covering nearly 30,000,000 students. Most of them are Japanese and Korean. The second large populations are Malaysian, Thai, Vietnamese and other southeast countries’ people. The third are North Americans and European countries people. Chinese is becoming a new dominant language just after English.
There is no doubt that English has been the dominant global language for a century, but is it the language of future? Thousands of people have thousands of answers. Maybe it still need time to tell. As David Crystal (1...
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...l not replace English as the global language in the next century. English language has a solid foundation of population and technological field. Since everybody is learning and communicating with each other in English, is it necessary for everyone to learn a new language (Chinese) for sharing ideas? The answer is obvious. However, it is possible that English will not keep its monopoly in the next century. Rather, a small number of languages including English may form dominant roles – each with a special area of influence, for instance, Chinese’s rising will create a bilingual English-Chinese region. In other words, English may supplement or co-exist with other important languages by allowing strangers to communicate across linguistic boundaries. It may become a tool that opens windows to the world, unlocks doors to opportunities, and expands our minds to new ideas.
Something fun about China, China’s language is Called Standard Mandarin and it's a very big language it is amazing how they write and read this interesting language. Around 70% of the population speaks and understands this language but the small amount who don't speak mandarin use mainly English, the same language as us!
As discussed in World Geography class, the world has become more globalized in the modern world due to the expansion of the internet and transportation for easier travel to areas of the world. Through the internet and tourism, the spread of more populous languages grows. According to the Globalization and Diversity textbook, through globalization, smaller cultures have a hard time catching up with the rest of the world; thus, these cultures must adapt to the dominate culture. The Tuvan, Aka, and Seri cultures cannot compete with English, for example, as the numbers of English speakers are significantly higher. In a world of globalization, the need for a common language, or lingua franca, is important for numerous cultures to
“Our Native Tongue” is a short article written by Nelson W. Aldrich. Jr, in February 2000. To begin the article Aldrich describes how privileged and grateful he is to know the English language. Aldrich says “I’d been born with a silver tongue in my mouth.” From this statement, readers can assume how amazing the English language is. Silver is an item most people value, Aldrich values English the way some would value silver. Aldrich also says because he knows the English language he has access to many opportunities, that others would have to pay for because they do not know the English language. The article also discusses the first global lingua franca. Lingua franca is “the language of science, business, political, and finical power, and English”. Lingua franca is also a diammoniate language that is accepted between speakers whose languages are different.
According to Bernard Comrie (1990: 83),’ there are more than 1,000,000,000 people are speakers of some form of Chinese.’ By seeing this figure, Chinese should have appeared long enough for its evolution and let it spread to different areas in which Chinese or its form can become the dominant language.
A lingua franca is a common language that ties speakers of other native languages together. Mandarin works as this lingua franca in the way that it ties people together from countries such as China, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, and Taiwan together, even though their home countries may have different languages. This common standard language allows businesses across these countries to communicate easily. As this lingua franca, Mandarin is growing more as a second-language. The indigenous languages of these variously cultured people still remain intact and in use, and the standard language just allows them to communicate amongst each
Although the powers of all English, Standard Chinese and Cantonese have not been hugely influenced by the handover, there was still a major change because Hong Kong government has started to promote Mandarin through the education system. As Davison and Lai (2007: 121-122) well observe, by the 2003/04 academic year, there were over 90% of all primary and secondary schools offering Mandarin as a subject.
Moreover a major point in globalization is language which helps connect people together because most people use it in the world. In addition, over a billion people in the world now speak English. According to a report titled, “English Next" by language researcher David Graddol, "...two billion people [will] be speaking or learning English within a decade" Graddol (1997).
With over 1.2 billion speakers, Chinese currently stands as the world’s most spoken language. Despite having a smaller volume of speakers, English is currently the most widespread world language. The world is constantly changing and interaction between these two languages is inevitable. Thus English has borrowed certain phrases and words from the Chinese language and vice-versa.
Society and the way it works has changed tremendously over the years. Business between countries has grown and connections have grown with it as well.The world is a boundless place full of many different cultures and has “roughly 6,900” languages around the world that are all unique in their own way (source B). Although there is an overwhelming
It has been adopted by different sectors making it one of the most used languages in the globe. This has been attributed to its effective nature, easy learning and rich history. However, conservative groups exist who argues that there should be global language since it may cause the emergence of superior cultures. Nevertheless, it is evident that different cultures ranging from the early polish immigrants, the African American community, the advertising and media will greatly benefit from the globalization of the English language. This will prove in the end that English is indeed a global
...nology is moving ahead at the speed of light. With all this advancement comes the inevitable need for a language that unifies the world. The need for a common language to conduct our business and economic affairs, and our need to communicate internationally on political and world interventions has made English the leader in world languages. It is not the language spoken first by most, but it the language that the world uses when it comes together to communicate.
It can be seen that English has become a global language, which is determined by lots of factors like history, culture and daily usefulness. Because of these factors, the number of people who speak English is still increasing now. English, as a significant part of social life gradually exerted profound impacts on education, job hunting and international communication. Also, it provides the whole world with a chance to share ideas and communicate freely. We are quite curious to see the further development of English as a lingua franca in the
It would be reasonable if Honey suggested that English would be the dominant language in the near future. English is still the global language worldwide and the United States is still the driving force in political, economical and cultural fields of endeavor. This dominance will last for a long while yet, but not forever.
In order to visualize the “global” as an adjective in the collocation “global language”, a study has shown the numbers of people speaking the language. According to them, there are about 6000 languages in the world and not surprisingly English is at the top of the list of most dominant. In the world there are 375 million first-language speakers, approximately the same number of second-language speakers and about 750 million foreign-language speakers (David Graddol, The Future of English? A Guide to Forecasting the Popularity of the English Language in the 21st Century. British Council, 1997). According to magazine Economist, more than one billion people speak some form of English. These numbers could make people think that English is really conquering the world which can be both positive and negative.
Therefore, there is the term of world Englishes or new Englishes in many parts of the country. People speak English to communicate because nowadays people around the world travel to one country and another. English has the different dialect, so that is why there are varieties of English. There is inner circle, where most of the populations are monolingual English speakers, expanding circle where the population uses English as an additional language and outer where the population uses both of their national language and English language. In another word, the language of wider communication is English, or it called as lingua franca. Wardhaugh, on his book said that “lingua franca is ‘a language which is used habitually by people whose mother tongues are different in order to facilitate communication between them” (Wardhaugh P.59) Indeed, lingua franca also a linguistic system that can be used as a tool of communication and it can be spoken in a variety of ways. According to the history, the term lingua franca (in Italy means “Frankish Language”), or Sabir (‘to know’) is started from pidgin language in the 14th century. “In some countries, the most useful and widely used lingua franca is an official language or the national language” (holmes, Janet P.84) one of the example is Indonesian